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Mouthpiece Change Leads To...

Author: Clariphant in Bb
Date: 2006-10-03 00:57

After playing for several years on a John Pierce Jazz clarinet mouthpiece, I felt that I needed a more traditional piece if I wanted to obtain the "sound in my head" (I know, that never <i>really</i> will happen, but I can always try to get closer to it). I decided on a Morgan RM-10. After receiving the mouthpiece and playing it, I'm overall satisfied with it, but its intonation seems lacking. It's constantly sharp. Even after adding multiple tuning rings and pulling out all joints, it just barely gets in tune. Is this just a consequence of switching from an open mp to a more closed one? I think I may be pushing to hard on the new mouthpiece, because I'm used to a larger distance between the reed and tip like on the john pierce (1.4mm if I remember correctly). The whole range is sharp by the same increment, so the mouthpiece does have an "even" scale. It's just hard to get this scale to A=440. Also, I noticed that I recieved my mouthpiece with a slight chip at the very bottom of the face, past the butt of the reed. The reed never makes any remote contact with this spot, and I haven't noticed any problems that I believe could be attributed to that, but I just want clarification as to whether or not this could affect the tonal characteristics of the mouthpiece. I expect that Mr. Morgan checks the mouthpieces before they are shipped, and I found no chipped off material in the tube that the mouthpiece came in, so I can only assume that it didn't happen in shipping. Sorry if I'm asking a lot. I get worried over this kind of thing quite easily.

By the way, my clarinet is a Greenline R-13 with a 66mm Chadash barrel and Optimum ligature if that helps anyone to make a diagnosis.

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